Media figures support Bloomberg regarding China

Leading figures at old and new American news outlets defended Bloomberg LP CEO Dan Doctoroff’s role at a celebration of press freedom on a day when Bloomberg faced intense criticism over reports that it bowed to the Chinese government.

Rosie Gray and Ben Smith of BuzzFeed write, “Doctoroff chaired the annual Press Freedom Awards dinner of the Committee to Protect Journalists at Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, where host Scott Pelley denounced ‘those who censor, those who harm, and those who silence journalists’ before introducing Doctoroff, who called on the press to ‘stand together.’

“Bloomberg is ‘innocent until proven guilty in my book,’ said CNBC host Jim Cramer. ‘Dan Doctoroff is a great guy.’

“‘I absolutely think it’s appropriate for Bloomberg to chair this event,’ said the writer Kati Marton, a member of the group’s board of directors and the widow of the diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who said of the reports Bloomberg had killed a story about a top Chinese figure: ‘I wouldn’t call it a scandal.’

“A founder of Vice, Suroosh Alvi, also defended Bloomberg. ‘I don’t have a problem with it,’ he said.”

Read more here.